If you scan the hive mind, blogs, twitter, facebook et al. there’s a deep sense of the public being wronged – whatever side you vote for, and what it boils down to is money.
The Supreme Court just sanctioned restrictions on corporate spending on federal campaigns, the very rich are getting even richer and throwing in a million dollar bonus on top, bailout money is disappearing through the cracks as we the people lose our homes, our jobs, our identity, as we are laid off, filing for bankruptcy, unable to afford health care or medical bills and it all comes down to money. Read the rest of this entry »
The comparisons between North America’s First People and the Na’vi is direct in James Cameron’s Avatar, a film that surpasses the hype and draws you in literally with its 3D technology so real you feel like you can reach out and touch it. I walked out of the theater wanting to be a Na’vi who lives on Pandora. If you’ve missed the back story you can brush up here, where Roger Ebert suggests that we can find allegory about contemporary politics in this film and that we can, but we can also discover an echo of the deep roots, the very foundations of America in the story of Avatar. Just as the humans went to conquer Pandora so the Europeans came to America to claim it as their own. Fast forward to modern times and the land left to Native Americans just happens to sit on top of some of the most coveted resources from gold on Western Shoshone land to coal on the Navajo Reservation to prime real estate on the San Francisco Peaks, to oil in Canada where the largest modern ecological disaster is unfolding in Alberta and altering the lives of Canada’s First Nations. So it is on Pandora where the humans want the resources underneath the Na’vi’s home.
CNN’s Tom Charity dubbed it “dances with wolves in outer space” as a marine becomes Na’vi, but I think he missed the point. Avatar is about us finding our way home, to our true selves. This is about human beings on earth coming back to our connection. What makes us feel alive? Do you feel alive? Are you happy with the way the world unfolds around you? Maybe it’s time to wake up. Are we awake? Can we wake up? What do things look like if we wake up? Does the most coveted thing still look like money? Do we still worship it as our motivating God or does that change?
Mr. Cameron spins dreams like a master weaver. I could see you and me reflected in this film and I could dream a new story for our future, one where our collective human culture reconnects to reverence for the land, and respect for the reason we can sustain life at all, our earth. I could dream that we would discover the fundamental beauty in the world around us and our power to shape it with the choices of the everyday. Pandora and the culture of the Na’vi calls to me, not because of its fantasy, its outerspace otherness, but because it is our own story waiting to be told.
As Christmas rolls around the corner, the season of gift giving is upon us. Some savvy shoppers, observant friends, and those with the go-getter spirit unafraid of wielding long traffic hours and elbows in store fronts will find Christmas a zestful challenge.
Others will find it a claustrophobia of deja vu, a performance part that repeats yearly and still others will find the experience a happy medium.
Unlike previous years I find myself much more attracted to virtual gifts. My philosophy is that if I must send or receive a gift, it might as well be a gift that won’t cozy up to a landfill in the future. Also, stupid gifts (which I can unintentionally give in my last minute panic) in virtual worlds hold a certain pizazz they lack in the real world. For example, a “tripped out escalator” from Detroit is actually rather cool in VR, though the hard copy (glass snow-globe) will not likely capture the joy you were hoping for in person.
After a bit of searching I found a wealth of gift options that are virtual, always playful and sometimes meaningful.
Ning launched its virtual gifts this year, you can give to your friends on twitter with twesents and twitgiftly. Gifts in 3D targeted for iPhone users are now available, as are the old staples of virtual cards and flowers. My favorite gifts are on facebook. Yes, you can launch a rash of gift giving to your farmville neighbors and give disney gifts or plant gifts to your 400 friends until your credit runs out, but for those really really special friends I’m into facebook’s (newly expanded) gift area where you can give music, or charity gifts. Hit your causes app, go to gifts and you’ll fnd things like a Kiva piggy bank, or a WWF Panda or a cute puppy where the money goes to the Humane Society.
In a culture weighted down with stuff, in some cases virtual exchange makes sense and if you choose charity giving, it can meaningfully contribute to those truly in need.
The projections onto Coit Tower were a great success! Both evenings (the 25th and 26th) were warm and clear and a group came up to the tower to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Indian’s of all tribes occupation of Alcatraz and to start a conversation about San Francisco’s first people, the Ohlone. The press also showed up. CBS 5′s, Don Knapp did a piece so did Dana King and Phil Matier. Anna Bloom also did a nice write up and video (see below).
I was in awe to play a small role in this event. Some of the films were:
-Alcatraz Is Not an Island (James Fortier)
-Rendezvouz with Alcatraz (Ben Wood & David Mark)
-Welcome to Ohlone Territory (Marlo Mckenzie and Neil Maclean)
- Ohlone Families (Charlene Sul, Anthony Sul )
-San Bruno Mountain (Keith Moreau and Sam Ellis Moreau)
-Native America segments by Lorenzo
Fortunately Mike and team has posted a peaceful action list for us all on his website where he offers solutions like, declaring a moratorium on all home evictions or putting your money in a credit union instead of a bank.
Another friend suggested that someone might form a news corporation called CEO Stalker where we all keep a very tight eye on the fat bonuses being paid out and trickle down economics in action.
Despite our choice of tactics what Moore’s movie does, is remind us all that it’s time to don our capes, put on our spandex red underwear with accenting yellow belt and become who we are. It’s time to find our way back to Kansas, to join the rebel alliance and destroy the space star. How fortunate we are to be born in a time when all of us are called upon to be heroes! Our task is large, we must save the earth and it’s inhabitants from destruction by evil forces who will stop at nothing to accumulate increasing wealth and power. If we fail, the human race as we know it will end, and the earth itself may possibly die. If we succeed, we can create a future for our children and all creatures of the earth that is peaceful and joyous. And we simpletons will be celebrated in song and legend over a mug of beer.
The world we dream of can be won. It exists, if we wake up and remember our spark, that flame will lead the way.
After an evening of reflection and proper sleep everything in life becomes a slight tinge of rosy for me. I’m even prone to giggling over silly things or things that are not supposed to be giggled at, like armed robbery. Even as I now write, I can’t help chuckling and doling out the pragmatic advice that you must absolutely add one more item to your list of things to do in life ::Get robbed at Gun Point Give freely to others.
In the end it’s an experience like anything else and it’s not so much the experience, but what you do with it that counts. My experience is actually quite funny because it starts out with a psychic reading. I have never been to a professional psychic reading in my life. In High School they had women dressed like gypsy’s at our graduation party and a gypsy told me that I would be rich. As it turns out, she had the same insight for most of the student body, so I’ve come to discount that reading. I was also accidentally read as I sat in a crowd observing as a famous Australian medium talked with dead people. It just so happened that my recently deceased grandpa came through and had a lot to say about the state of my messy room and that I should actually for once in my life make my bed. The medium/psychic also professed that I would continue to work in media and live on an island. Sort of looks like Britian, an earth island, he said. So that went on to come true and certainly peaked my interest in the topic.
Tuesday evening I had a spectacular first reading (a birthday gift) and as I walked back to Bart sort of glowing in wonder, a spontaneous thought came to me– wouldn’t it be hilarious if I got robbed right after seeing a psychic? I took mental note that, I should write that into a story. Ha ha ha! Not two minutes later I turned off toward Bart and out of the darkness emerged two shady looking guys and I thought, they look shady. They look very very shady. They’re probably selling drugs, but I should walk faster. I bolstered myself and shouted triumphantly in my head, never fear because you are like super giant, like a mountain, like 6 feet tall and protected by a bubble of love and kindness, and magic and –
It was about then that I heard the feet SPRINTING behind me and found a gun suddenly pressed into my ribcage, which I found deeply offensive. I don’t like to be touched by strangers. I also have an aversion to guns because they have a nasty record of harming humankind more so than helping. The young robber boy seemed to sense that and backed away, but remained careful to point the gun at my ribs as his partner hovered behind me. Read the rest of this entry »
